I know Random Tuesday is usually for lighter fare but I’m going to expound upon a couple ideas for a bit and hope it doesn’t sound crazy. I thought a lot about it on my very quiet drive home from the concert, since Isaac was asleep.

I hope this doesn’t turn anyone away but after all, this is my blog.

So something that struck me as interesting is how out of place, really, all the fans at the Ghost show were compared to the people who work there. These folks were mostly women, maybe 40s-60s and very, well, straight-laced looking. I cannot deign to know what they are really like but it is how they presented themselves.  These were the ushers and the ones handing out programs. The girls running the bar were somewhere in the middle. They were youngish, basic at best. BUT, none of them were like the fans: metal enthusiasts. You may know that type: some goths, mostly guys in jackets and a variety of black shirts sporting names of bands ranging from Iron Maiden to Cannibal Corpse to Amon Amarth (trust me: this list does run the gamut of metal genres). Once inside, not in the lobby, the entire atmosphere changed. The show encompassed this other-worldy experience that people in this sub-culture hold dear. When inside with people of similar taste, we were all one. People sang aloud and cheered and it was a very communal and festive experience. I know if you’ve been to any concert you know what I mean. I’m just trying to juxtapose the outer appearance with the inner ritual. And these people weren’t rowdy or out of control but they did a lot of headbanging and threw a lot of horns.

Here, you can see the crowd going nutso over Square Hammer. Yes, the lyrics do suggest that one must swear to Satan. No, most of us in attendance do not worship the devil. How many employees of the Florida Theater thought that though? I hope none but you don’t know. (Shows sometimes do get Baptist protesters.) But it’s performance art; horror and darkness coalescing into theater of the mind through music (borrowing a Bruce Dickinson phrase there; he always talks about ‘theater of the mind’.)

Similarly, something that I enjoyed but struck me as interesting were (are) the sexual undertones. In the end, humans are here to procreate so it’s the most basic tenet of life. As Tobias spoke towards the end, he joked that since we’d spent two, two and a half hours together, we know each other pretty well. He went on, “We’ve touched, we’ve danced, we… flirted. We’re basically already doing it. May as well just f***you now.” And though he said it in an overtly sexual manner, I do think there’s a little bit of truth and connection behind the idea that we came together as one during that concert. I love this analogy/simile and it sort of transcends the idea of people liking music as an individual thing. I’m a very introverted person and spend a lot of time in my own head so at a concert where we are all one, it’s an interesting sort of merging.

In a day and age where everything is being protested and the prudish nature of – ahem – people who once didn’t care about such things is becoming out of control, I like to think that everyone in that theater indulging in a joke about the band screwing us all in the parking lot breaks free of these societal chains. For those 2-3 hours, we weren’t encumbered by anything. And nothing was more true than the lyrics to Cirice:

Now there is nothing between us
From now our merge is eternal
Can’t you see that you’re lost?
Can’t you see that you’re lost without me?